Institutional

Federal Reserve policymaker Charles Evans, president of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, said in a speech Friday that the pace of interest rate increases is what really matters, not the precise timing of when they begin.

There is ample liquidity to buy and sell U.S. corporate bonds, a group of New York Federal Reserve economists found, dismissing worries that tougher regulations could threaten some investors' ability to sell their holdings amid market turmoil.

The long-running debate about whether the Federal Reserve should adjust interest rates to deflate risky financial market bubbles was on full display Friday at a conference sponsored by the Boston Fed, as was the rift among individual policymakers on the subject.

New York Fed president William Dudley has downplayed widespread concerns about bond market liquidity, saying instead that the rise of high-frequency trading probably plays a bigger role in any changes.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on in a speech late Thursday afternoon that she expects the U.S. central bank to hike interest rates by year's end, as long as inflation remains stable and the U.S. economy is strong enough to boost employment.

From the current issue of

The testimony of former FBI Director James Comey came and went with more hype than harm to Donald Trump’s administration. The more important issue is whether Congress spent too much political capital to get comprehensive tax reform done by the end of 2017. The likelihood of significant policy changes is fleeting for the year. Some economists are even losing hope that tax reform will be completed by the midterm elections of 2018.